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Marlborough Regional Chamber of Commerce gets $20,000 from EPA to Reduce Municipal Waste

Release Date: 10/21/2005
Contact Information:

Contact: Sheryl Rosner ([email protected]), EPA Office of Public Affairs, (617) 918-1865

For Immediate Release: October 21, 2005; Release # sr051018

(Boston) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded the Marlborough Regional Chamber of Commerce a $20,000 grant to help reduce the amount of waste generated by the city by increasing the rate of composting food waste.

The Resource Conservation Challenge Grant is aimed at recruiting local businesses, including supermarkets, hotels, restaurants and institutional cafeterias to collect and compost their food waste.

“This program will help put a dent in the volume of local waste,” said Robert Varney, regional administrator of EPA’s New England office. “Reducing the amount of food being thrown away helps to reduce the amount of garbage heading into our waste stream.”

The program run by the Chamber will offer technical assistance workshops and free on-site visits to Marlborough area businesses to help them put in place a food waste collection, hauling and composting program. Other project partners include, the Mass. Department of Environmental Protection’s Commercial Waste Reduction Branch, WeCare Environmental Co-composting Facility in Marlborough, MA and Connolly Associates in Hampton, NH.

EPA’s Resource Conservation Challenge Grant program looks at municipal solid waste, also called trash or garbage, as part of everyone's daily life and therefore everyone’s challenge. This waste stream includes everything from cardboard cereal boxes and home office papers, to soda cans and plastic bottle from lunches at the mall. EPA has set a national goal of recycling 35 percent of America's municipal solid waste.

Reaching this goal has proven tougher than once thought. As more products become readily available and our society stays on the go, municipal waste streams are increasing in volume. Therefore, making it easier to collect, recycle or reuse valuable materials is a crucial step.

Several types of waste contribute disproportionately to the volume of municipal solid wastes created every year, and have been targeted for recycling. This includes food trimmings and yard wastes, which comprise about one-quarter of municipal solid waste. Therefore, this waste stream has a great potential for changing the way and amount recycled each year.

For more information on EPA’s program go to the web site https://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/conserve/priorities/msw.htm .

Related Information:
Resource Conservation Challenge: Municipal Solid Waste Recycling
Solid Waste in New England
Pollution Prevention (P2) Resources